Episode 40: The Howard Smiley Conversation

Howard Smiley……..what can we say? He was so behind the scenes in the record business that the only photo we could find of him is one in the kitchen of him making some fried matzoh! Without further ado let us introduce you to Mr. Howard Smiley the man behind the man next to the guy behind the guy…….but don’t let his anonymity fool you. Howard worked some of the biggest records ever as a one man wrecking machine for Henry Stone’s TK Records.The home of artists such as George McCrae , Betty Wright , K.C. And The Sunshine Band , The Village People , Latimore , Ralph Macdonald etc etc…..Howard saw the birth and explosion of Disco happen and he was a big part of it. Howard grew up in south Florida in the late 50’s and 60’s. A nice jewish boy who decided sort of to go into the record business.Kind of by accident as his record business job during college just happened to fit in between classes. He also batted (or attempted to) against hall of famer Steve Carlton in high school but that’s an entirely other story. After an incredible run as the swiss army knife of a gigantic indie label Howard moved to New York from Miami to basically invent the licensing and cross marketing of music for a plethora of other uses. Over the last 40+ years Howard has had his hand in just about every aspect of the music business expect for maybe playing bongos on an album but we hear that’s in the works. He can also hit a jump shot at will from just about anywhere on a basketball court. So here you go folks stories about an incredible time and what used to be an incredible industry filled with stories and characters. Howard was and is one of those amazing characters. Welcome to the CTWP family Howard…….now fry us up some matzoh!!!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.